Dear Prudence

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guy Fletcher
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
Prima Facie ◽  
Moral Discourse ◽  
Intrinsic Interest ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Stark Contrast

Philosophers have long theorized about which things make people’s lives go well, and why, and the extent to which morality and self-interest can be reconciled. By contrast, we have spent little time on meta-prudential questions, questions about prudential discourse (thought and talk about what is, e.g., good and bad for us, what contributes to well-being, and what we have prudential reason, or prudentially ought, to do). This situation is surprising. Prudential discourse is, prima facie, a normative form of discourse and cries out for further investigation of what it is like and whether it has problematic commitments. It also marks a stark contrast from moral discourse, about which there has been extensive theorizing in metaethics. This book has three broad aims. First, to explore the nature of prudential discourse. Second, to argue that prudential discourse is normative and authoritative, like moral discourse. Third, to show that prudential discourse is worthy of further, explicit, attention both due to its intrinsic interest but also for the light it can shed on the meta-normative more broadly.

scholarly journals Taking Prudence Seriously

2019 ◽  
pp. 70-94
Author(s):  
Guy Fletcher
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
Prima Facie ◽  
Moral Discourse ◽  
Reasons For Action ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Moral Judgements

Philosophers have long theorized about which things make people’s lives go well, and why, and the extent to which morality and self-interest can be reconciled. Yet little time has been spent on meta-prudential questions, questions about prudential discourse. This is surprising given that prudence is, prima facie, a normative form of discourse and, as such, cries out for further investigation. Chapter 4 takes up two major meta-prudential questions. It first examines whether there is a set of prudential reasons, generated by evaluative prudential properties, and defends the view that evaluative well-being facts generate agent-relative reasons (for action or for attitudes) for the relevant agent. It also investigates whether prudential discourse is normative. It is proposed that prudential discourse is normative by arguing that prudential judgements are normative judgements. The case for this is presented by analogy with moral discourse by showing that the features of moral judgements that metaethicists appeal to when articulating, explaining, and justifying the claim that moral judgements are normative are also possessed by prudential judgements. Various objections to the analogy are also considered.

Foundations From Quantum Physics for a Normative Theory of Administration and Governance

Public Voices ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 35
Author(s):  
R. Philip Brown
Keyword(s):  
Public Administration ◽  
Meaning In Life ◽  
Quantum Physics ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Normative Theory ◽  
The People ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Prime Meridian ◽  
Organizational Purpose ◽  
Organizing Principles

The modem American ethos is a brand of Lockean individualism gone wrong that now embraces rapacious self-interest as its prime meridian. A new ethicalmodel is necessary to combat this radical, soulless, and excessively particularistic form of individualism. The author proposes a journeyman philosophy of organization and governance for citizen and administrative practitioner alike based upon concepts from quantum theory. This normative model of administration, called authentic individualism, has certain ramifications for a more reflexive, creative and unorthodox approach to public administration. All institutions and organizations are systems guided by general organizing principles that should discard the humans as a resource model, make employee well-being an organizational purpose, encourage humans toward a sense of moral meaning in life and work, recognize legitimate leadership as emerging from the people who make up the organization, and fulfill obligations to the community that supports them and makes them successful.

How Can Economic Interests Influence Support for Free Trade?

2012 ◽  
Vol 66 (2) ◽  
pp. 311-328 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin O. Fordham ◽  
Katja B. Kleinberg
Keyword(s):  
Trade Policy ◽  
Free Trade ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Economic Interests ◽  
Policy Attitudes ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Close Relationship ◽  
Direction Of Causation ◽  
Complete Account

AbstractRecent research on the sources of individual attitudes toward trade policy comes to very different conclusions about the role of economic self-interest. The skeptical view suggests that long-standing symbolic predispositions and sociotropic perceptions shape trade policy opinions more than one's own material well-being. We believe this conclusion is premature for two reasons. First, the practice of using one attitude to predict another raises questions about direction of causation that cannot be answered with the data at hand. This problem is most obvious when questions about the expected impact of trade are used to predict opinions about trade policy. Second, the understanding of self-interest employed in most studies of trade policy attitudes is unrealistically narrow. In reality, the close relationship between individual economic interests and the interests of the groups in which individuals are embedded creates indirect pathways through which one's position in the economy can shape individual trade policy preferences. We use the data employed by Mansfield and Mutz to support our argument that a more complete account of trade attitude formation is needed and that in such an account economic interests may yet play an important role.1

Against Their Apparent Self-Interest: The Authorization of Independent State Legislative Ethics Commissions, 1973–96

2003 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beth A. Rosenson
Keyword(s):  
Agenda Setting ◽  
Event History Analysis ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Party Competition ◽  
Independent State ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Ethics Policy ◽  
Ethics Commissions ◽  
The Impact ◽  
State Legislative

Why do state legislators enact policies that conflict with their immediate self-interest? I address this question by assessing the impact of traditional and non-traditional policy determinants on ethics policy adoption. Specifically, I use event history analysis to identify the factors that explain the authorization of independent state legislative ethics commissions from 1973 to 1996. I find that the determinants of ethics policy are substantially, but not completely, different from those of other policies, with ethics policy fitting into an agenda-setting model better than many other policies. Scandals and the actions of other states played a prominent role in setting the agenda and facilitating the authorization of ethics commissions. The agenda-setting process transforms the immediate self-interest of legislators on this issue from one of concern about their own economic well being to one of concern about re-election. In addition, political culture, institutional power arrangements, legislative compensation, and party competition had small but discernible effects on the likelihood of a state establishing a legislative ethics commission.

Political Obligation

Philosophy ◽  
2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ned Dobos
Keyword(s):  
Social Exclusion ◽  
Moral Obligation ◽  
Sole Source ◽  
Prima Facie ◽  
Political Obligation ◽  
Moral Duty ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
The Law ◽  
Additional Reason

There are good, prudential reasons to obey the law. The prospect of punishment, not to mention loss of reputation and social exclusion, is enough for most any citizen possessed of a suitably far-sighted self-interest to discharge his or her legal duties. But is there a moral obligation to do what the law requires, just because the law requires it? If the answer is yes and the mere illegality of an act renders its performance prima facie morally wrong, political obligation obtains. Political obligation thus refers to the moral duty of citizens to obey the laws of their state. In cases where an action or forbearance that is required by law is morally obligatory on independent grounds, political obligation simply gives the citizen an additional reason for acting accordingly. But law tends to extend beyond morality, forbidding otherwise morally innocent behavior and compelling acts and omissions that people tend to think of as morally discretionary. In such cases, the sole source of one’s moral duty to comply with the law is one’s political obligation.

Economic Vulnerability, Self-Interest, and Individual Trade Preferences

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Guisinger
Keyword(s):  
Gender Gap ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Potential Benefits ◽  
Standard Models ◽  
Original Survey ◽  
Trade Preferences ◽  
Election Studies ◽  
Trade Partners ◽  
Do So

Chapter 4 provides an original explanation both for why women and minorities are more likely to express protectionist sentiments and for why those protectionist sentiments are not reflected in their voting. The chapter provides an extension of standard models of individual economic well-being to consider trade’s effect not only on wages but also on employment volatility, which is increased by openness to foreign trade. The chapter offers analysis of original survey data from 2006 and 2010 and three decades of American National Election Studies to confirm the previously observed gender gap and newly identified racial gap in trade preferences. The chapter then presents two experimental surveys testing alternative causal mechanisms for the divides. Both experiments vary the type of information provided to respondents about trade partners and potential benefits of trade. In both cases, experiments show stability in women and non-whites preferences for trade and variability in white men’s preferences. Next, the chapter reinvestigates the salience of trade by gender and racial groupings and shows low salience among women and non-whites. The chapter concludes with a description of who might benefit from women and minorities stable preferences and why so few organizations seek to do so.

The Malleability Narrative in Entertainment and Social Media: Explaining Pathways to Happiness in Media Content

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Vandenbosch ◽  
Steven Eggermont
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Communication Theory ◽  
Cultural Sociology ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Popular Media ◽  
Media Representations ◽  
Media Content ◽  
Audience Research ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Analytical Research

Abstract Media effects research has documented the prevalence of different ideals in media content, and their effects on media users. We developed a framework for the representation of such ideals, and that may increase our understanding of the effects media have on users' well-being. Drawing on cultural sociology, communication theory, and psychological literature, we introduce the malleability narrative of mediated ideals, described as “a collection of media representations of a variety of ideals that tend to be portrayed as within reach for anyone who is committed to pursuing his/her own self-interest.” The aim of the framework is to foster content analytical research on the occurrence of the malleability narrative in popular media and to stimulate audience research on interactions between media users and the malleability narrative in media, while taking account of different explanatory routes and the heterogeneity of the audience.

scholarly journals Does employees’ subjective well-being affect workplace performance?

2017 ◽  
Vol 70 (8) ◽  
pp. 1017-1037 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Bryson ◽  
John Forth ◽  
Lucy Stokes
Keyword(s):  
Job Satisfaction ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Prima Facie ◽  
Estimation Methods ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
Workplace Performance ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Prima Facie Case ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
The Relationship

This article uses linked employer–employee data to investigate the relationship between employees’ subjective well-being and workplace performance in Britain. The analyses show a clear, positive and statistically significant relationship between the average level of job satisfaction at the workplace and workplace performance. The relationship is present in both cross-sectional and panel analyses and is robust to various estimation methods and model specifications. In contrast, we find no association between levels of job-related affect and workplace performance. Ours is the first study of its kind for Britain to use nationally representative data and it provides novel findings regarding the importance of worker job satisfaction in explaining workplace performance. The findings suggest that there is a prima facie case for employers to maintain and raise levels of job satisfaction among their employees. They also indicate that initiatives to raise aggregate job satisfaction should feature in policy discussions around how to improve levels of productivity and growth.

The Need for and the Societal Legitimacy of Social Investments in Children and Their Families

2008 ◽  
Vol 29 (11) ◽  
pp. 1520-1542 ◽  
Author(s):  
Trudie Knijn ◽  
Wim van Oorschot
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Parental Leave ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Opinion Survey ◽  
International Context ◽  
Personal Lives ◽  
Public Opinion Survey ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Investments In Children

In Europe, social investments on behalf of children have become an important issue in social policy. In the Dutch welfare state debate, however, the issue has only a modest place, which raises questions about whether an extension of existing arrangements would be necessary and what its societal legitimacy would be. This article discusses the first question by putting the Dutch situation and its policies into an international context. The second question is answered by an analysis of a public opinion survey on Dutch popular preferences for new child care and parental leave arrangements. The article concludes that extra social investments in children would be beneficial for the future of the Dutch welfare state but that their societal legitimacy is not that obvious, given the division in public opinion. The analysis shows that self-interest does play a role but that ideas about the importance of children, for society and for peoples' personal lives, and ideas about the well-being of children are more important.

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